Friday, April 21, 2017

Fellow collector David Wilton sent the following information about his new bookplate.

"The bookplate is engraved from an original artwork, a watercolor, by Graham Redgrave Rust.The house shown is The Firs in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. The Firs
was built in 1922 to a design by the well known architect George Howe of
Mellor, Meigs and Howe. It is a scaled-down variation on its neighbor,
Howe's own house High Hollow.
The arms at the top and the circular badge in the bottom right of the
cartouche are my family's. My initials are in the circle in the base.The bookplate was engraved and printed by Book Arts in Washington DC
on acid-free pre-gummed paper. The idea was to capture the feel of the
watercolor, which I think they have achieved."Note from Lew -The bookplate has a thin blue line border which the scanner does not show properly.=========================================================

A new contest was hatched this morning.

My Goodness - Two contests in one year. I am on a roll.
Alice L. Salzmann's bookplate was designed in 1905 by A.H.B (artist unknown)
She was an active member of the Royal Horticultural Society .

The contest is easy. Just create a caption for her bookplate ,shown below.

The rules are simple .Only one submission per personThe judges (Lew and Mary Jaffe) will delete any submissions in poor taste.All submissions must be received by Midnight (E.S.T) May 30,2017

The winner will receive a copy of John Grisham's upcoming new thriller about the antiquarian book trade , Camino Island

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Fellow collector/dealer Jeffrey Price sent me this information about a very special bookplate he recently framed in his Norwalk, Connecticut Studio.

"This is what I look for in a bookplate, and how I like to present such special pieces. .

Bookplate
for Calvin Coolidge. Proof printing of the engraving by Timothy Cole.
Signed by Timothy Cole and noted, 'this is the latest printed today.'
Also signed by Calvin Coolidge. This print was formerly in the
collection of Malcolm S. Forbes.

The 'floating'
presentation within a patriotic red mat with a decorative inner frame
allows the complete print to be displayed with its full margins. The
'Stars and Stripes' design of the frame echoes the flag unfurled around
the vignette of George Washington which crowns the plate.

The hand-painted gold-leaf name-plate identifies the details of this fine work."

"I ran into your website which caught my eye as a fellow Jaffe - who used
to work at an antiquarian bookstore and designed a few bookplates for
customers.Just for fun, here's a bookplate I bought years ago (hairy guy), plus 2 of my own designs".

"As to my bookplates, I worked for over a decade at an antiquarian
bookstore in The Hague (proprietor Bob Loose, now sadly deceased). We
had various steady customers who collected specific subjects, as one
does. I originally studied Industrial Design and like being crafty, so
I'd ask if they'd be interested in a personalized bookplate or stamp, as
I love making them. Animals seemed to be the most frequent. I think
I've done ants, monkeys, snails, snakes, owls, "levenstrap" (life phases
pictured on stairsteps), tiger and probably more. There's something
about expressing yourself in a restricted space that I really enjoy."

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Many Mystery Bookplates

I purchased a large collection several weeks ago and it includes many bookplates about which I know very little . Here are two examples.

A rebus bookplate which may be in Spanish.

Have fun with this one. I can use some help.

Bookplatemaven@hotmail.com

It would be nice if this was Fidel Castro's bookplate. I suspect it is a tribute plate made to honor him.The collector whose contact information is printed on the verso shows up on Google at the same address with a telephone number. Unfortunately the telephone number is no longer working.